Americans continue spending in December, inflations slips more than expected

Americans continued to splash out at a steady clip at the end of 2023, while price pressures continued to recede.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, in seasonally adjusted terms personal consumption expenditures grew at a month-on-month pace of 0.3% in December (consensus: 0.4%).

That was on top of a two tenths of a percentage point upwards revision to the prior month's increase to reach 0.4%.

Personal incomes meanwhile rose by 0.3% over the month (consensus: 0.4%).

On the inflation front, the year-on-year rate of increase in the price deflator for personal consumption expenditures was steady at 2.6%.

At the core level however, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, PCE inflation slipped from 3.2% to 2.9% (consensus: 3.0%).

Worth noting, core PCE prices were the U.S. central bank's preferred inflation gauge.

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